Heat exchanger foe air conditioning



N O T G m N N E P A N HEAT EXCHANGER FOR AIR CONDITIONING iginal Filed Jan. 12, 1946 NEAL A- PENNMQTON,

INVEN TOR,

ATToR NE Y Patented Aug. 7, 1951 HEAT EXCHANGER FOR AIR CONDITIONING Neal A. Pennington, Tucson, Ariz., assignor of one-filth to Robert H. Henley, Tiptonville, Tenn., and one-fourth to Roger Sherman Hoar, South Milwaukee, Wis.

Original application January 12, 1946, Serial No. 640,792, now Patent No. 2,464,766, dated March 15, 1949. Divided and this application October 20, 1948, Serial No. 55,594

3 Claims. 1

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in rotatable heat-exchangers for use in air-conditioning apparatus for effecting heat transfer between the air in two air-passages across both of which passages the pad rotates.

This present application is a divisional of my Patent No. 2,464766 issued March 15, 1949, for improvements in air-conditioning apparatus, which copending patent fully describes the type of apparatus in which the present invention is primarily intended to be used.

The principal object of my present invention is to devise eflicient heat-exchangers, capable of transferring a very large percentage of the difference in sensible heat between two streams of air.

In addition to my principal object, above stated, I have worked out a number of novel and useful details, which will be readily evident as the description progresses.

My invention consists in the novel parts and in the combination and arrangement thereof, which are defined in the appended claims, and of which one embodiment is exemplified in the accompanying drawings, which are hereinafter particularly described and explained.

Throughout the description the same reference number is applied to the same member or to similar members.

Figure l is an elevation, showing one face of my heat-exchanger.

Figure 2 is a side elevation, showing the rim of my heat-exchanger, taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

The details of my heat-exchanger will now be described, with particular reference to the two figures.

This heat-exchanger consists of a casing and packing. The casing comprises a hub ll, spokes I2, and a rim l3. Each of the sectors, thereof, bounded by the spokes and the rim, is stuffed with a packing ll of some non-hygroscopic airpermeable non-rusting substance, highly heatabsorbent (i. e., high heat-conductivity, highspecific heat, and proper surface), such as metal wool, of which I have tried various sorts, including copper wool, but prefer aluminum wool. The hub ll, spokes I2, and rim [3, of the casing of my heat-exchanger, are all of substantially the same width in the direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the heat-exchanger. This, plus the fact that the packing completely fills each of the sectors, helps to hold the packing substantially in place in the casing, in spite of gravity,

plane of rotation. But the above-mentioned uniformity of width is primarily for the purpose of preventing air-flow radially outward from the heat-exchanger, or from one to the other of the two air-passages across which my heat-exchanger is designed to rotate. In order to prevent this undesired air-fiow, it is further necessary that hub I l, spokes l2, and rim l3, be imperforate.

From the above description, it should be evident that my packing It must satisfy two somewhat conflicting requirements: that is to say, it must be stuffed into the sectors of the casing suiliciently loosely so as to be freely air-permeable, and yet sufliciently compactly so as to be self-sustaining and hence substantially immovable with respect to the casing.

If desired for further assurance of this immovability, a fine-mesh or coarse-mesh screen, or theequivalent, can be secured to each face of the casing. Such screenlike means is shown at IS in Figure 1, and is merely indicated as IS in Figure 2.

Inasmuch as the rules for determining the proper thickness of my heat-exchanger are stated and discussed in detail in my said Patent No. 2,464,766, of which this present patent is a divisional, they are not repeated here.

The same is true of the one-to-one corespondence between the absorption of heat, and the giving up of heat, by each infinitesimal portion of each filament of my packing, which feature is the secret of the distinctive efficiency of my heatexchanger. This is aided by the random direction of the filaments of the material employed by me.

Having now described and illustrated one form of my invention, I wish it to be understood that my invention is not'to be limited to the specific form or arrangements of parts herein described and shown.

I claim:

l. A rotatable heat-exchanger for an air-conditioning unit, comprising: a wheel-like casing, having spokes, a hub, and a rim, all imperforate, and all of substantially the same width in an axial direction, said spokes dividing the casing into sectors; a packing of filamentous springy metallic material highly heat-absorbent, completely filling each of the sectors of said casing, the filaments of said packing lying in random directions, said packing being packed into each sector with such compactness as to be freely airpermeable and yet be so self-sustaining as to be air-110W, and rotation, and ardless of the substantially immovable with respect to the eas- 3 mg during the rotation of the casing even in a vertical plane; and screem-lllre means secured to the casing at each face thereof, to retain the packing therein.

2. A rotatable heat-exchanger according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the filamentous material is metal wool.

'3. A rotatable heat-exchanger according to claim 2, characterized by the fact that the metal wool is aluminum wool.

NEAL A. PENNINGTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

4 WWEHD erm'ee Number Name Date 1,240,656 Benson Sept. 18, 1917 1,604,235 Odom Oct. 26, 1926 5 1,746,598 Ljunstrom Feb. 11, 1930 1,762,320 Wood June 10, 1930 1,916,332 Rogers July 4, 1933 2,120,764 Newton June 14, 1938 2,187,470 Collins Jan. 16, 1940 10 2,421,714 Cooper Sept. 23, 194':

FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 291,402 Great Britain Dec. 13, 1928 

